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At the recent Code4Lib 2009 Conference in Providence, there was a talk on FRBR by Jodi Schneider and William Denton.

In my first post, I thought of creating a separate page with links to various resources on FRBR and RDA. After some thought and seeing the types of resources out there on the web, I realized that many were time sensitive. This was particularly true for many workshops that I saw advertised. Hence, I decided to dedicate the occasional post on FRBR, RDA, FRAD, FRAR.

For this first post, I have collected a small list of general resources on FRBR, FRAR, and FRAD. These links are to sites, like the one to Jodi Schneider and William Denton’s Code4Lib presentation, that provide a general introduction to these topics and some clarification. I have also included some blog postings, where you can add comments and insert yourself into the discussion. These links are at the end of this post.

Is there a particular resource here that I prefer? I know that many have trouble with Wikipedia. However, I found their article included the necessary information to get you started on the path to understanding not just FRBR but also FRAR. It also had good links to IFLA and the crucial blog from William Denton on all things FRBR. The main lesong is that FRBR is a conceptual entity-relationship model, developed by IFLA, and is not to be confused with AACR2 or even RDA, which is a content standard.

The catalogingfutures blog and Kelly McGrath’s explanation of FRBR for a larger audience (go directly to: http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/03/10/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records/) helped me to better understand FRBR for catalogers. Kelly brings up a good point; a lot of information is stuffed into notes that many don’t read or miss. If this data was linked not just to a larger cultural context but also to other relevant and useful information, the user would have an entire network of information and knowledge possibilities at the palm of their mouse. This would take advantage of the web, it would enhance users’ experience of library holdings, and create more enriched relationships.

The PDF link to Barbara Tilliet’s 8 page publicity for her book entitled, What is FRBR, packs a punch in terms of describing FRBR. Here, you’ll find a good definition of the major principles, FRBR, entities, relationships, along with some helpful graphs.

Some of the other resources listed below re-iterate much that these 3 links cover. The exception are the links on FRAR and FRAD. Bibliogrpahic records do not just contain descriptive information about items but also include access points, controlled data such as authorized forms of names, subject headings, and the link. Bibliographic records also contain information on location, type of material, carrier (DVD, VHS, monograph,…). FRAR and FRAD or the Functional Requirements for Authority Records and the Functional Requirements for Authority Data are two conceptual entity-relationship models. These two models are similar to FRBR but differ. This is why I included some links to both of these models. Again the Wikipedia article is a good starting point. Glenn Patton’s presentation is also a good starting point to read about the main points in FRAR and FRAD and how they relate to FRBR.

There’s a lot of information out there on this subject…and a lot of opinions. So more links are on the way….

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The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian just posted this link on his blog about staffing, library culture, and digital projects.

The link is to Michael Edson’s blog, Using Data. The brief presentation called the Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff person really strikes at the heart of many difficulties that we face within the library culture. We need to get our content out there, make it visible, searchable, browsable. We have seen that looking resources up in closed stacks did not work. This closed gate community in terms of online content will also not work. Also, the library and librarian as the sole authority in town has never been true. Knowledge comes from the encounter of the many and not just one source.